Galactic Background Research Articles

A new candidate of a cluster of galaxies behind the Galactic plane, AX J145732-5901

Abstract AX J145732-5901 is an unidentified X-ray source discovered in the ASCA Galactic Plane Survey. Its extended nature and heavily absorbed X-ray spectrum suggest that AX J145732-5901 is a cluster of galaxies behind the Galactic plane. However, due to limited photon statistics, the spectral shape was not well examined. Using the results of the Galactic ridge X-ray emission and cosmic X-ray background studies based on the Suzaku observations, we reanalyzed the ASCA data of AX J145732-5901. We confirmed that the source is more extended than the point spread function and the angular size is $14^{\prime }\times 10^{\prime }$. The spectrum was heavily absorbed by interstellar matter equivalent to an $N_{\rm H}$ of ${\sim}10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$ and the emission line feature was confirmed. The spectrum was represented by a thin thermal plasma model with a temperature of 2.6 keV and a redshift of 0.12. Assuming the redshift value, the X-ray luminosity is calculated to be $2.6\times 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$ in the 1–10 keV energy band. The observational results indicate that AX J145732-5901 is a cluster of galaxies behind the Galactic plane.

Cavity as radio telescope for galactic dark photon.

Cavity as radio telescope for galactic dark photon.

Radiation Impact of the Halloween GLE Events During the October–November 2003 Period

AbstractFrom late October to early November 2003, one of the strongest recorded geomagnetic storms occurred due to heightened solar activity. Three ground‐level enhancement events (GLEs) took place during this period, GLE 65, 66, and 67, known as the Halloween events. In this work we expand upon and use, the newly developed and verified dosimetric model Oulu CRAC:DOMO (Cosmic Ray Atmospheric Cascade: Dosimetric Model) to compute the radiation impact of the Halloween events at an altitude typical for aviation, that is of 35 kft. Complex magnetospheric modeling was performed for each GLE event and the deep Forbush decrease present was reconstructed and accounted for. Using a conservative approach, the computed total effective dose for all three Halloween GLEs was 135 Sv in polar regions, an increase of 129% above the galactic cosmic ray background induced dose. While this is a significant increase, we conclude that the radiation hazard posed to aircrew and passengers was relatively minor. In addition, a comparison between flight dosimetric measurements taken during the Halloween events and CRAC:DOMO showed a good agreement.

A deep study confirms diffuse nonthermal X-ray emission from the globular cluster Terzan 5

Diffuse X-ray emission has been detected from a few Galactic globular clusters (GCs), but its nature remains largely unclear. The GC Terzan 5 was previously found to show a significant diffuse thermal X-ray excess from its field, likely contributed by the Galactic background, and a nonthermal component described by a power-law model with photon index $ With over 16 times the accumulated exposure time compared to a prior study, we reexamined and verified the diffuse X-ray emission from the field of which enabled us to place constraints on its nature. We analyzed all available useful observations of including 18 observations over a span of 13 years, with a total exposure time of 641.6 ks. To study the diffuse X-ray emission, we focused on four annular regions with an equal width of 0.72 arcmin centered on (0.72--3.60 arcmin), from which we extracted and analyzed the X-ray spectra after removing point sources and instrumental backgrounds. We confirm a significant diffuse X-ray excess from the field of in the band 0.8--3 keV. After constraining the contribution from the local X-ray background, we find a diffuse X-ray component that is genuinely associated with and can be well described by a power-law model. More interestingly, the fitted photon indices show a significant increase from $ 0.18$ in the inner region to $ 0.71$ in the outer region. The diffuse X-rays are also well fit by a thermal bremsstrahlung model, with plasma temperatures declining from $kT 3$ keV to $kT 1$ keV. We suggest that synchrotron radiation from the combined pulsar winds of millisecond pulsar population is a possible origin of the observed diffuse X-ray emission but that the sharp steepening in the spectra cannot be produced solely by synchrotron cooling. Other radiation processes, like thermal bremsstrahlung, may also contribute to the diffuse X-rays.

The properties of the Galactic hard X-ray and soft γ-ray background based on 20 years of INTEGRAL/IBIS observations

The properties of the Galactic hard X-ray and soft γ-ray background based on 20 years of INTEGRAL/IBIS observations

Bulk black hole dark matter

Bulk black hole dark matter

VENICE: A multi-scale operator-splitting algorithm for multi-physics simulations

Context. We present VENICE, an operator-splitting algorithm to integrate a numerical model on a hierarchy of timescales. Aims. VENICE allows a wide variety of different physical processes operating on different scales to be coupled on individual and adaptive time-steps. It therewith mediates the development of complex multi-scale and multi-physics simulation environments with a wide variety of independent components. Methods. The coupling between various physical models and scales is dynamic, and realised through (Strang) operators splitting using adaptive time-steps. Results. We demonstrate the functionality and performance of this algorithm using astrophysical models of a stellar cluster, first coupling gravitational dynamics and stellar evolution, then coupling internal gravitational dynamics with dynamics within a galactic background potential, and finally combining these models while also introducing dwarf galaxy-like perturbers. These tests show numerical convergence for decreasing coupling timescales, demonstrate how VENICE can improve the performance of a simulation by shortening coupling timescales when appropriate, and provide a case study of how VENICE can be used to gradually build up and tune a complex multi-physics model. Although the examples provided here couple dedicated numerical models, VENICE can also be used to efficiently solve systems of stiff differential equations.

New γ-Ray Sources Identified in All-sky Surveys Based on Fermipy’s Advanced Algorithm

We employ an efficient method for identifying γ-ray sources across the entire sky, leveraging advanced algorithms from Fermipy, and cleverly utilizing the Galactic diffuse background emission model to partition the entire sky into 72 regions, thereby greatly enhancing the efficiency of discovering new sources throughout the sky through multi-threaded parallel computing. After confirming the reliability of the new method, we applied it for the first time to analyze data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) encompassing approximately 15.41 yr of all-sky surveys. Through this analysis, we successfully identified 1379 new sources with significance levels exceeding 4σ, of which 497 sources exhibited higher significance levels exceeding 5σ. Subsequently, we performed a systematic analysis of the spatial extension, spectra, and light variation characteristics of these newly identified sources. We identified 21 extended sources and 23 sources exhibiting spectral curvature above 10 GeV. Additionally, we identified 44 variable sources above 1 GeV.

Probing the galactic and extragalactic gravitational wave backgrounds with space-based interferometers

We employ the formalism developed in [1] and [2] to study the prospect of detecting an anisotropic Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB) with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) alone, and combined with the proposed space-based interferometer Taiji. Previous analyses have been performed in the frequency domain only. Here, we study the detectability of the individual coefficients of the expansion of the SGWB in spherical harmonics, by taking into account the specific motion of the satellites. This requires the use of time-dependent response functions, which we include in our analysis to obtain an optimal estimate of the anisotropic signal. We focus on two applications. Firstly, the reconstruction of the anisotropic galactic signal without assuming any prior knowledge of its spatial distribution. We find that both LISA and LISA with Taiji cannot put tight constraints on the harmonic coefficients for realistic models of the galactic SGWB. We then focus on the discrimination between a galactic signal of known morphology but unknown overall amplitude and an isotropic extragalactic SGWB component of astrophysical origin. In this case, we find that the two surveys can confirm, at a confidence level ≳ 3σ, the existence of both the galactic and extragalactic background if both have amplitudes as predicted in standard models. We also find that, in the LISA-only case, the analysis in the frequency domain (under the assumption of a time average of data taken homogeneously across the year) provides a nearly identical determination of the two amplitudes as compared to the optimal analysis.

Stellar wind bubbles of OB stars as Galactic cosmic ray re-accelerators

ABSTRACT Cosmic rays are highly energetic messengers propagating in magnetized plasma, which are, possibly but not exclusively, accelerated at astrophysical shocks. Amongst the variety of astrophysical objects presenting shocks, the huge circumstellar stellar wind bubbles forming around very massive stars, are potential non-thermal emitters. We present the 1D magneto-hydrodynamical simulation of the evolving magnetized surroundings of a single, OB-type main-sequence $60\, \rm {\rm M}_{\odot }$ star, which is post-processed to calculate the re-acceleration of pre-existing non-thermal particles of the Galactic cosmic ray background. It is found that the forward shock of such circumstellar bubble can, during the early phase ($1\, \rm Myr$) of its expansion, act as a substantial re-accelerator of pre-existing interstellar cosmic rays. This results in an increasing excess emission flux by a factor of 5, the hadronic component producing γ-rays by π0 decay being more important than those by synchrotron and inverse Compton radiation mechanisms. We propose that this effect is at work in the circumstellar environments of massive stars in general and we conjecture that other nebulae such as the stellar wind bow shocks of runaway massive stars also act as Galactic cosmic ray re-accelerators. Particularly, this study supports the interpretation of the enhanced hadronic emission flux measured from the surroundings of κ Ori as originating from the acceleration of pre-existing particles at the forward shock of its wind bubble.

Modeling the Radial Distribution of Pulsars in the Galaxy

The Parkes 20 cm multibeam pulsar surveys have discovered nearly half of the known pulsars and revealed many distant pulsars with high dispersion measures. Using a sample of 1301 pulsars from these surveys, we have explored the spatial distribution and birth rate of normal pulsars. The pulsar distances used to calculate the pulsar surface density are estimated from the YMW16 electron-density model. When estimating the impact of the Galactic background radiation on our survey, we projected pulsars in the galaxy onto the Galactic plane, assuming that the flux density distribution of pulsars is uniform in all directions, and utilized the most up-to-date background temperature map. We also used an up-to-date version of the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue to model the distribution of pulsar flux densities at 1400 MHz. We derive an improved radial distribution for the pulsar surface density projected onto the Galactic plane, which has a maximum value at ∼4 kpc from the Galactic center. We also derive the local surface density and birth rate of pulsars, obtaining 47 ± 5 kpc−2 and ∼4.7 ± 0.5 kpc−2 Myr−1, respectively. For the total number of potentially detectable pulsars in the galaxy, we obtain (1.1 ± 0.2) × 104 and (1.1 ± 0.2)×105 before and after applying the Tauris & Manchester beaming correction model. The radial distribution function is used to estimate the proportion of pulsars in each spiral arm and the Galactic center.

The Milky Way revealed to be a neutrino desert by the IceCube Galactic plane observation

The Galactic diffuse emission (GDE) is formed when cosmic rays leave the sources where they were accelerated, diffusively propagate in the Galactic magnetic field and interact with the interstellar medium and interstellar radiation field. GDE in γ-rays (GDE-γ) has been observed up to subpetaelectronvolt energies, although its origin may be explained by either cosmic-ray nuclei or electrons. Here we show that the γ-rays accompanying the high-energy neutrinos recently observed by the IceCube Observatory from the Galactic plane have a flux that is consistent with the GDE-γ observed by the Fermi-LAT and Tibet ASγ experiments around 1 TeV and 0.5 PeV, respectively. The consistency suggests that the diffuse γ-ray emission above ~1 TeV could be dominated by hadronuclear interactions, although a partial leptonic contribution cannot be excluded. Moreover, by comparing the fluxes of the Galactic and extragalactic diffuse emission backgrounds, we find that the neutrino luminosity of the Milky Way is one-to-two orders of magnitude lower than the average of distant galaxies. This finding implies that our Galaxy has not hosted the type of neutrino emitters that dominates the isotropic neutrino background at least in the past few tens of kiloyears.

The rich molecular environment of the luminous blue variable star AFGL 2298

Context. Luminous blue variable (LBV) stars represent a short-lived stage in the late evolution of the most massive stars. Highly unstable, LBVs exhibit dense stellar winds and episodic eruptions that produce complex circumstellar nebulae, the study of which is crucial for properly constraining the impact of these sources at a Galactic scale from a structural, dynamical, and chemical perspective. Aims. We aim to investigate the molecular environment of AFGL 2298, an obscured Galactic LBV that hosts a highly structured circumstellar environment with hints of multiple mass-loss events in the last few 104 a. Methods. We present spectral line observations of AFGL 2298 at 1 and 3 mm performed with the IRAM 30 m radio telescope. Results. We report the detection of several carbon- and nitrogen-bearing species (CO, 13CO, C18O, C17O, HCO+, HCN, HNC, H13CO+, CN, N2H+, and C2H) in the surroundings of AFGL 2298. We identified three velocity components that clearly stand out from the Galactic background. The morphology, kinematics, masses, and isotopic ratios, together with a comparative study of the fractional abundances, lead us to suggest that two of these components (36 and 70 km s−1) have a stellar origin. The other component (46 km s−1) most likely traces swept-up interstellar material, and probably also harbours a photon-dominated region. Conclusions. We provide the first inventory of the circumstellar molecular gas around AFGL 2298. Our results are compatible with the hypothesis of former mass-loss events produced before the one that created the infrared nebula. The chemistry of this LBV suggests the presence of ejected stellar material, and also swept up gas. These findings will help us to better understand the mass-loss history of this class of evolved massive stars, which is important given that they heavily influence the overall chemical evolution of the Galaxy.

X-ray surface brightness and gas density profiles of galaxy clusters up to 3 × R500c with SRG/eROSITA

ABSTRACT Using the data of the SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey, we stacked a sample of ∼40 galaxy cluster images in the 0.3–2.3 keV band, covering the radial range up to 10 × R500c. The excess emission on top of the Galactic and extragalactic X-ray backgrounds and foregrounds is detected up to ∼3 × R500c. At these distances, the surface brightness of the stacked image drops below ∼1 per cent of the background. The density profile reconstructed from the X-ray surface brightness profile agrees well (within ∼30 per cent) with the mean gas profile found in numerical simulations, which predict the local gas overdensity of ∼ 20–30 at 3 × R500c and the gas fraction close to the universal value of $\frac{\Omega _b}{\Omega _m}\approx 0.15$ in the standard Λ cold dark matter model. Taking at face value, this agreement suggests that up to ∼3 × R500c the X-ray signal is not strongly boosted by the gas clumpiness, although a scenario with a moderately inhomogeneous gas cannot be excluded. A comparison of the derived gas density profile with the electron pressure profile based on the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect measurements suggests that by r ∼ 3 × R500c the gas temperature drops by a factor of ∼ 4–5 below the characteristic temperature of a typical cluster in the sample within R500c, while the entropy keeps growing up to this distance. Better constraints on the gas properties just beyond 3 × R500c should be possible with a sample larger than used for this pilot study.

Lightning Interferometry with the Long Wavelength Array

The Long Wavelength Array is a radio telescope array located at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in La Joya, New Mexico, well suited and situated for the observation of lightning. The array consists of 256 high-sensitivity dual polarization antennas arranged in a 100 m diameter. This paper demonstrates some of the capabilities that the array brings to the study of lightning. Once 32 or more antennas are used to image lightning radio sources, virtually every integration period longer than the impulse response of the array includes at least one identifiable lightning emitter, independent of the integration period used. The use of many antennas also allows multiple simultaneous lightning radio sources to be imaged at sub-microsecond timescales; for the flash examined, 51% of the images contained more than one lightning source. Finally, by using many antennas to image lightning sources, the array is capable of locating sources fainter than the galactic background radio noise level, yielding possibly the most sensitive radio maps of lightning to date. This incredible sensitivity enables, for the first time, the emissions originating from the positive leader tips of natural in-cloud lightning to be detected and located. The tip emission is distinctly different from needle emission and is most likely due to positive breakdown.

New estimation of the nuclear de-excitation line emission from the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A

ABSTRACT MeV nuclear de-excitation lines serve as a unique tool to study low-energy cosmic rays (CRs), containing both spectral and elemental information of the interacting material. In this paper, we estimated the possible nuclear de-excitation lines from the young supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Given different CR spectral shapes and interacting materials, we found the predicted fluxes of strong narrow line emissions from the remnant are highly model-dependent, ranging from about $1\times 10^{-10}\, {\rm \, cm^{-2}\, s^{-1}}$ to $1\times 10^{-6}\, {\rm \, cm^{-2}\, s^{-1}}$ for the 4.44 MeV narrow line and from about $4\times 10^{-11}\, {\rm \, cm^{-2}\, s^{-1}}$ to $2\times 10^{-7}{\rm \, cm^{-2}\, s^{-1}}$ for the 6.13 MeV narrow line, respectively. Based on the new estimation, we also discussed the detection probability of these line emissions against the MeV diffuse Galactic background under different assumptions of instrument response functions.

Internal Kinematics and Structure of the Bulge Globular Cluster NGC 6569 ∗ ∗ Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Cerro Paranal (Chile), in the context of the ESO-VLT Multi-Instrument Kinematic Survey (MIKiS survey) under Large Programmes 106.21N5 (PI: Ferraro), 195.D-0750 (PI: Ferraro), 193.D-0232 (PI: Ferraro). This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All

In the context of a project aimed at characterizing the properties of star clusters in the Galactic bulge, here we present the determination of the internal kinematics and structure of the massive globular cluster NGC 6569. The kinematics has been studied by means of an unprecedented spectroscopic data set acquired in the context of the ESO-VLT Multi-Instrument Kinematic Survey of Galactic globular clusters, combining the observations from four different spectrographs. We measured the line-of-sight velocity of a sample of almost 1300 stars distributed between ∼0.″8 and 770″ from the cluster center. From a subsample of high-quality measures, we determined the velocity dispersion profile of the system over its entire radial extension (from ∼5″ to ∼200″ from the center), finding the characteristic behavior usually observed in globular clusters, with a constant inner plateau and a declining trend at larger radii. The projected density profile of the cluster has been obtained from resolved star counts, by combining high-resolution photometric data in the center, and the Gaia EDR3 catalog radially extended out to for a proper sampling of the Galactic field background. The two profiles are properly reproduced by the same King model, from which we estimated updated values of the central velocity dispersion, main structural parameters (such as the King concentration, the core, half mass, and tidal radii), total mass, and relaxation times. Our analysis also reveals a hint of ordered rotation in an intermediate region of the cluster (40″ < r < 90″, corresponding to 2r c < r < 4.5r c ), but additional data are required to properly assess this possibility.

Limits on Leptonic TeV Emission from the Cygnus Cocoon with Swift-XRT

γ-ray observations of the Cygnus Cocoon, an extended source surrounding the Cygnus X star-forming region, suggest the presence of a cosmic-ray accelerator reaching energies up to a few PeV. The very-high-energy (VHE; 0.1–100 TeV) γ-ray emission may be explained by the interaction of cosmic-ray hadrons with matter inside the Cocoon, but an origin of inverse Compton radiation by relativistic electrons cannot be ruled out. Inverse Compton γ-rays at VHE are accompanied by synchrotron radiation peaked in X-rays. Hence, X-ray observations may probe the electron population and magnetic field of the source. We observed 11 fields in or near the Cygnus Cocoon with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory’s X-Ray Telescope (Swift-XRT) totaling 110 ks. We fit the fields to a Galactic and extragalactic background model and performed a log-likelihood ratio test for an additional diffuse component. We found no significant additional emission and established upper limits in each field. By assuming that the X-ray intensity traces the TeV intensity and follows a spectrum, we obtained a 90% upper limit of F X < 8.7 × 10−11 erg cm−2 s−1 or <5.2 × 10−11 erg cm−2 s−1 on the X-ray flux of the entire Cygnus Cocoon between 2 and 10 keV depending on the choice of hydrogen column density model for the absorption. The obtained upper limits suggest that no more than one-quarter of the γ-ray flux at 1 TeV is produced by inverse Compton scattering, when assuming an equipartition magnetic field of ∼20 μG.

Superradiant axion clouds around asteroid-mass primordial black holes

We analyze the dynamics and observational signatures of axion clouds formed via the superradiant instability around primordial black holes, focusing on the mass range 1014 - 1018 kg where the latter may account for all the dark matter.We take into account the leading effects of axion self-interactions, showing that, even though these limit the number of axions produced within each cloud,a large number of superradiant axions become free of the black hole's gravitational potential and accumulate in the intergalactic medium or even in the host galaxy, depending on their escape velocity. This means that primordial black hole dark matter may lead to a sizeable astrophysical population of non-relativistic axions, with masses ranging from 0.1 eV to 1 MeV, depending on the primordial black hole mass and spin.We then show that if such axions couple to photons their contribution to the galactic and extragalactic background flux, mainly in the X-ray and gamma-ray band of the spectrum, is already beyond current observational limits for a large range of parameters that are, therefore, excluded. We finish by showing the prospects of the Athena X-ray telescope to further probe this co-existence of primordial black holes and axions.

On the morphology of the gamma-ray galactic centre excess

ABSTRACT The characteristics of the galactic centre excess (GCE) emission observed in gamma-ray energies – especially the morphology of the GCE – remain a hotly debated subject. The manner in which the dominant diffuse gamma-ray background is modelled has been claimed to have a determining effect on the preferred morphology. In this work, we compare two distinct approaches to the galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission background: the first approach models this emission through templates calculated from a sequence of well-defined astrophysical assumptions, while the second approach divides surrogates for the background gamma-ray emission into cylindrical galactocentric rings with free independent normalizations. At the latitudes that we focus on, we find that the former approach works better, and that the overall best fit is obtained for an astrophysically motivated fit when the GCE follows the morphology expected of dark matter annihilation. Quantitatively, the improvement compared with the best ring-based fits is roughly 6500 in the χ2 and roughly 4000 in the log of the Bayesian evidence.